Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire is maybe one of the few movies that combine the cinematography of Hollywood with the absurdity (At least in this stupid American college student’s perspective) of the weird craze that is Bollywood.  The movie at its core fits in the genre of dramatic and romantic story with a blend of humor while tying it all up to a game show for a the glue of the story.  The film stars an eighteen year old boy named Jamal who ends up in a “Who wants to be a millionaire” type of show in India in order to make contact with a childhood friend of his who was captured by a local gang. 

            Slumdog Millionaire feels and looks like a Bollywood film. From the music, environment, and dance, it really does feel like you are in a Bollywood version of India (not that that is a bad thing.).  The movie is cleverly edited and takes advantage of certain cuts.  Its main theme in contrast to the trailers and movie posters is not a love story about two people from the slums trying to find each other or the whole love can always outweigh money kind of movie. No, in fact, the main theme of the movie is Escapism and how it is a necessary piece of everyone’s lives but not a huge chunk of it. It shows viewers that there is no problem with having an escapist fantasy; just remember that there are real world stuff that needs to be done.

            One of the scenes more particular is the one that stretches throughout the movie and it is the interrogation and millionaire show.  Jamal is being held in an interrogation room when he is accused of cheating in the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire TV show and he is trying to prove his innocence by recalling how the answers in the show resemble or relate to a memory in his life.  The film opens with cut scenes of Jamal in the interrogation room and Jamal at the Who Wants to be a Millionaire television show.  These scenes show Danny Boyles main style of the movie which is Smash Cuts.  Smash cuts a type of technique in film where one scene interrupts and cuts to another without any transition.  It is used to keep the audience’s attention.  These are usually used for some movies that rely heavily on flashbacks to tell their narrative.  Slumdog Millionaire’s narrative relies heavily on flashbacks as Jamal is recounting how he knew most of the answers on the show due to a past experience in his life.  That is where the Smash cut comes into play.   In order to show the two different areas that the film cuts to for Jamal, it cuts back to the interrogation room and the TV show.  These both come into play when concerning the main theme of the movie which happens to be Escapism.  Jamal sees the interrogation room as a harsh look on life in his real life while the television show is an escapist world where he can relax and try to earn some money.  This is reflected through the visuals of the movie between these two locations.  The Interrogation scenes are shown in orange and red and with many close-ups.  This gives a sense of uneasiness and a sense of claustrophobia and fear.  It makes the audience member feel uneasy and harsh and since red and orange colors give humans a sense of anger and a rush of adrenaline it is give the viewer a tense and uneasy movement.  For Jamal, this is how his life feels like.  He did not live an easy life, and the interrogation scenes reminds him of his life was and probably still is painful, harsh, and unforgiving and is further emphasized during the close-up shots.  The “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” location represents the escapist route of Jamal as the area is filled with a blue palate with medium and wide shots in order for the viewer to see the whole audience and the set of the show.  The color blue in a psychological sense represents a very calming soothing emotion to some people which considering what Jamal had to go through the movie is somewhat of a means of him in a relaxed state.   In a way, the television show reveals the escapist fantasy of Jamal because in general, Television is one means in which a person and enter an escapist fantasy. Viewers use it to escape the real world and relax and Jamal is using it as a means to call a friend.   Jamal is in an environment which is to an extent of the viewer, fake.  The color changes makes the difference between the Real and Escapist area in which Jamal goes through. They are both two different worlds and the color palates represented them.  This is how Danny Boyle shows the shift between these two worlds in a visual sense to the viewer.

            As far as the more verbal and psychological sense of the view is how Jamal is treated in between these two worlds.  In the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire show, which represent the Escapist world of the movie, he is treated harshly by the audience and much more by the host due to him being a Slumdog and in their view, someone who should not be able to answer any of these questions.  Keep in mind; this is the escapist world of the movie.  The Escapist world should be a means for someone to avoid the rabble and troubles of the real world and when the Escapist world starts or has to an extent already turned on him, it is a sign that Jamal needed to escape that world and reenter the real world.      It also makes the audience and more so the Game show host that their escapist fantasy or expectations about a Slumdog not being smart enough to earn a million dollars with Jamal literally answering these questions correctly.  In real life, he would of lost the game, but this escapist world, he succeeds.